THE 



AMERICAN NATURALIST 



Vol. LI. March, 1917 No. 603 



THE BEAEING OF SOME GENEKAL BIOLOGICAL 

 FACTS ON BUD-VARIATION^ 



PROFESSOR E. M. EAST 



BUSSEY iNSTITUTIOif, HARVARD UNIVERSITY 



I TAKE it no one denies that in the Angiosperms vari- 

 ations may be produced in connection with reproduction 

 by means of buds and that these variations may be per- 

 petuated by the same method. Practically, as horticul- 

 turists and plant breeders, we care little about the occur- 

 rence of bud-variations elsewhere in the organic world. 

 Nevertheless, it may help in the orientation of our ideas 

 if we remember that budding is not a rare or unconven- 

 tional method of reproduction. In a generalized form, 

 the earliest method, it has persisted throughout the plant 

 kingdom from the most primitive to the highest and most 

 specialized types. Sexual reproduction has not replaced 

 it, but has been added to it. Even in the animal kingdom, 

 though eliminated among the higher forms, it still exists 

 as an occasional alternate method in three fourths of the 

 phyla. Such being the case, it would seem logically to 

 follow that variation must have been within its possi- 

 bilities. 



The cause, the frequency, the type, the constancy, the 

 mechanism, of these variations are more debatable, how- 

 ever, and on these questions many biological facts which 

 superficially seem unconnected, have a direct bearing. In 



1 Read before the meeting of the Society for Horticultural Science, De- 

 cember 28, 1916. 



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